Dolphin Data Collection and some added fun!

We woke to the sound of the surf but not the patter of rain drops! The rain had stopped in the night, if only long enough for our data collection session! I was in the water by 7:05 AM after having introduced Nicole to the dolphins from above the water at Bailey’s Key. You can see Stan and two friends waiting for me to enter the water in this blog photo. The underwater visibility was really good, even though the current picked up while I was making observations and had to swim hard to get back to the platform. We reviewed the morning video after breakfast and had a great conversation with two other guests (Sue and Kathryn). Since it was pouring out, they decided to watch the video with us. Mid-day had Nicole and me collecting space-use data and watching the dolphins at Bailey’s to assess their activity levels. The rain had returned, but we were mostly dry sitting under the palapa on the dock. Our dry state did not last long – but for very fun reasons! Elyork was working with Ritchie and Ronnie on some action swim behaviors and asked if Nicole would be a participant! The action swim was not at all expected and I (Nicole) was totally impressed by all the behaviors Ronnie and Ritchie would do. I had a smile ear-to-ear when they swam me across the water – the sensation was so much fun and I won’t ever forget it! The dolphins seemed very happy, too. I feel like I’ve been learning a lot and still have much to learn. I’ve also enjoyed taking the notes and helping as much as I can with the research. Looking forward to learning to analyze the data and reading more journal articles.

The rain continued all day long and we were wet and dry a few times. We hope the rain lessens before tomorrow morning so we have some visibility underwater. Fingers crossed! We both look forward to collecting more video footage tomorrow.

Until tomorrow,

Kathleen & Nicole